Back at the beginning of January, we heard that Deadpool director Tim Miller was working on a solo Kitty Pryde film over at Fox. Now, comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis has been brought over to Fox for a code-named X-Men project, which The Hollywood Reporter (THR) sources say will be that same Kitty Pryde film.
The Bendis project is reportedly code-named “143,” and THR‘s sources say that name is a reference to Uncanny X-Men #143, by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Uncanny X-Men #143 was Kitty Pryde’s first solo adventure issue, in which she squared off against a N’Garai demon who invaded the X-Mansion while she was home alone.
Kitty Pryde, a.k.a. Shadowcat, has previously appeared in a few of the Fox X-Men films, but never as a lead or title character—not even in the movie based on her comics storyline. She was briefly portrayed in cameos from Sumela Kay in X-Men and Katie Stuart in X2, but perhaps most famously played by Ellen Page in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. Fox rather infamously rewrote the “Days of Future Past” storyline—which centered on Kitty Pryde in the comics—to instead use Wolverine as its time-traveling protagonist. That history makes me particularly glad that they’ll finally put Kitty front-and-center.
Bendis has written for Marvel for eighteen years, helping to create characters like Miles Morales and Jessica Jones during his tenure. He recently moved to DC Comics, where he’ll be writing titles like Man of Steel. While his long history with Marvel characters does seem to make him a natural fit for this project, I’m really disappointed that they didn’t choose a woman for either the director or the screenwriter of this film. Diversity on-screen is great; diversity both on-screen and off-screen is better. Women deserve to tell their own stories, and given the infantilizing and creepy ways that some male writers have portrayed Kitty Pryde in the past, I’d especially prefer a female voice for this one.
Of course, as I wrote when this movie was first announced, the Disney-Fox merger will almost inevitably complicate this film’s journey to production. Since the U.S. government could decide not to approve the deal, Fox needs to keep making movies as usual, but it’s likely that the Kitty Pryde movie would need the Disney seal of approval before it gets made.
But what do you all think? Do you think Bendis is a good choice for Kitty Pryde?
(Via The Hollywood Reporter; image: Marvel Comics)
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